A look at Shane Warne’s five greatest bowling performances

Cricket’s all-time great, Shane Warne, has died aged 52 after suffering a suspected heart attack. The Australian cricketer won the 1999 World Cup and was named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Century for his exploits during a 15-year career between 1992 and 2007. Warne died a suspected heart attack in Thailand, according to a statement released by his management to Fox News.

“Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived,” the statement read. “The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course.”

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During a career that spanned over a decade and a half, Warne represented Australia in 145 Tests and 194 ODIs as one of the finest spinners in the world of cricket.

With 708 wickets to his name, he is the second-highest tally in Test cricket behind Muttiah Muralitharan, with an average of 25.41 and 37 five-wicket hauls and ten ten-fers to his name. Despite making his Test debut just one year after his 50-over debut against India in 1992, Shane Warne claimed 293 wickets at 25.73 during his illustrious career. Here are his five best bowling spells.

8/71 vs England at Brisbane (1994)

At the time of this bowling performance, Shane Warne had not yet established his reputation and he absolutely adored bowling against England. These figures place his bowling performance among his very best spells as a spinner. Shane Warne picked up 11 wickets throughout the match, including 8 in an innings where he completely outfoxed the batters and did not have any clue what and where he was bowling. He was spotted by the cricketing world because of this performance, and it wasn’t the same spinner from Australia again.

7/23 vs Pakistan at Brisbane (1995)

The bowler from Australia delivered another astonishing performance this time against the Pakistan team from the 1990s and the world once again looked in awe of the greatness that was unfolding in front of their eyes as he ran circles around them especially in the second innings when he helped himself to 7 wickets in 16 overs while giving up just 23 runs and they knew he would become one of the best ever and he didn’t disappoint anyone.

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7/52 vs West Indies at Melbourne (1992)

Warne dominated the West Indies in such an early stage of his career when they were still a very good team. It set the stage for what was to come in Warne’s future. TThis phenomenal performance took place when West Indies needed 380 runs to win this test match but Shane Warne ran through their batting order and won the match for Australia.

5/33 vs West Indies at Sydney (1996)

Having analyzed some of his best test match bowling performances, let’s now consider a few of his triumphs in the 50 over format as well. In 1996, he made a fantastic bowling performance against the West Indies, allowing the Caribbeans to score just 161 in just 9.3 overs and picking up 5 wickets in the process.

4/19 vs New Zealand at Melbourne (1993)

Shane Warne, bowling a magical spell where he got four wickets, put an end to New Zealand’s second innings and Australia won the match effortlessly. New Zealand batted second in this ODI match and they just needed to chase 203 runs in the second innings, but they couldn’t do it as Shane Warne got in their way, bowling a spell where he got four wickets, and they lost that game. The things he did for Australia were also awesome, along with showing what an impressive bowler he was.

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